Executive Board

Stéphane Richard, Ph.D., Founder and President at French BioBeach

Dr Richard graduated in X-ray crystallography from the University Joseph Fourier (Grenoble, France). He then joined the team of Prof. Joseph P. Noel in the Structural Biology Laboratory of the Salk Institute to study the biosynthesis of terpenoid natural products. As part of the Jack Skirball Chemical Biology and Proteomics Center of the Salk Institute, Dr Richard then focused his research on the chemo-enzymatic derivatization of natural products to develop novel therapeutically relevant compounds. Over the past year he has been pursuing basic science research in the field of algae at Sapphire Energy, a company at the forefront of a new industry category, Green Crude Production.

Florence Brunel, Ph.D. – Investigator, Research Chemistry at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr Brunel graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY under the supervision of Professor Arno F. Spatola, and with an engineering degree of the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Montpellier (Montpellier, France). She then joined the team of Professor Philip Dawson at the Scripps Research Institute, working mainly on studying the glycoprotein gp41 of the HIV virus, and using peptides to characterize different neutralizing antibodies that bind to it. In 2008, she joined Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. using her knowledge in peptides in their drug discovery research programs in the fields of diabetes and obesity.

Erin Bomati, Ph.D. – Scientist at Strategic Enzyme Applications, Inc.

Dr. Bomati received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego where she conducted research on natural product biosynthesis under the supervision of Professor Joseph P. Noel. She then became a postdoctoral scientist at the CNRS in Marseille, France where she initiated the molecular evolution of laccases for
applications in the textile industry. Returning to San Diego, Dr. Bomati became a postdoctoral scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she worked on the biochemical, spectroscopic, and structural characterization of marine fluorescent and bioluminescent proteins. In March of 2009 she joined Strategic Enzyme Applications, Inc where employs protein engineering and high throughput screening to
investigate and optimize industrially-relevant biotransformations.

Florence Tiraby – COO at Invivogen, Inc.
Fanny Estermann – Graduate Student at The Salk Institute

Advisory board

Catherine Tachdjian, Ph.D. – Executive Director Chemistry at Senomyx, Inc.
Alain Rolland, Ph.D. – Senior Vice President, Product Development at VICAL, Inc.
Alan J. Lewis, Ph.D – President & CEO at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Hervé Le Calvez, Ph.D. – President & CEO at ABBIOTEC, LLC.
Francois-Xavier Frapaise, M.D. – Chief Scientific Officer at Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Lionel Bochurberg, Ph.D, JD, Esq. VP International Legal Operations ar Next Wave